


The Watcher

by FerretShark



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Gen, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, everything else is fair game
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-06 04:41:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21220739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FerretShark/pseuds/FerretShark
Summary: Tony slips free of the suit and eases down next to him,. “So I know you probably have big end of summer plans, but Pep, Morgan and I are heading down to Massacheusettes soon. There’s some small time outfits down there that Pepper’s thinking about investing in.”“Hmmm.” Peter says noncommittally. Tony keeps looking at him.“She’s rented some kind of rambling, Colonial monstrosity a couple of towns over. There’ll be plenty of room. Want to come with? It’ll be fun.”





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

  
Peter hears him coming long before he sees him. Peter is settled on top of a top of a building, perched on a ledge when Iron Man lands beside him. Tony immediately retracts the face-plate.

“Hey kid.” All quiet on the Western front?” He teases as the thrusters disengage.  
  
“Yeah, it’s a good night. Nothing interesting going down. Like at all” He sighs, picking a bit at his gloves.   
  
Tony slips free of the suit and eases down next to him,. “So I know you probably have big end of summer plans, but Pep, Morgan and I are heading down to Massachusetts soon. There’s some small time outfits down there that Pepper’s thinking about investing in.”  
  
“Hmmm.” Peter says noncommittally. Tony keeps looking at him.  
  
“She’s rented some kind of rambling, Colonial monstrosity a couple of towns over. There’ll be plenty of room. Want to come with? It’ll be fun.”  
  
Peter ponders this. It’s mid-August and May and Happy were leaving for a two week cruise. The deal was that he could stay at the apartment by himself, but only with regular check-ins with either Tony or May, along with regular updates to the ‘Peter Parker Parental figure group chat.’ Which actually had more members than you might expect.. The downside was that Ned was going to Florida and MJ had already started a summer workshop in Chicago. There wasn’t really much to keep him here besides crime fighting. He sighs.   
  
“But here’s the best part.There’s a solar eclipse in three weeks and this will put us in the path of totality.” Tony was wheedling now. “We can drop by MIT on the way back too.”  
  
“Again?” Peter couldn’t stop the smile under the mask. Tony wasn’t exactly subtle.  
  
“ Yes _ again _. It’s a beautiful campus.” Tony nudges him and Peter laughs. “So, what do you say, kid? Sound like a plan?”  
  
“For how long?” Peter’s already mostly made up his mind to go along, but he’s curious.   
  
“Two weeks - ish.” Tony hedges a bit. “Give or take.”  
  
It would make the time pass. Even better than the movies and frozen pizza binges he currently had planned. Would also probably keep him out of trouble. Tony, impatient as ever, cuts into his silent contemplation.  
  
“So you think Queens can survive for a bit without Spider-Man.” Peters head tilts in a considering pose under the mask. “That was a rhetorical question.” Tony cuts him off. “You’re coming with.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Curious, he walks over to the window. The room looked out over the woods to the west of the house. He stood admiring the view, when there was another flash. It sparked from the tree tops and he still couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
> 
> The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He leaned forward, straining his eyes to try and catch a glimpse of a figure concealed in the trees. There it was again, the disconcerting flash. He reached out to touch the window pane and brace himself against it. Just as his fingers make contact with the glass it breaks under his hand with a sharp crack. He jerked his palm back to find it bleeding.

Chapter 2

  
  
A week later, Peter is in the back of a borrowed station wagon - _a station wagon!_\- with Morgan. They were currently driving down a shaded tree covered lane. The leaves are just starting to turn a bright yellow color as the temperature had started dropping at night. They finally make a right turn onto a long winding driveway. Peter leans forward, almost pressing his face to the window to look.  
  
The house fills up the view, it’s a brownstone and covered in creeping ivy. Off to the left is a dark, wooded area that reminds him of fairy tales. The whole thing looks like an old English estate nestled in the countryside.  
  
Tony whistles. “Happy’s going to be sad he missed this. What is it, like a $5,000 a week?”  
  
Peter chokes on his spit.   
  
“Not even half that.” Pepper corrects.”The owner still lives on property in a cottage. She’s a bit of an eccentric and very particular about who she rents the place out to. So you,” She points at Tony, “had better be on your best behavior.”  
  
He scoffs at her and they fade from Peter’s attention as the car pulls in the drive.  
  
On second glance, the house seemed to draw in the light and extinguish it. A chill goes down his spine. Peter looked up at the rows of empty windows. It almost feels like he’s being watched.  
  
“MJ would love this place.” He comments absently.“It’s kind of creepy.”  
  
Tony scoffs“ It’s beautiful. Nothing scary ever happens in New England.”  
  
“Poltergeist, The Amityville Horror, ...the Exorcist..” Peter intones. He glances at Morgan. She’s still wearing her headphones, completely engrossed in her tablet so he continues. “The Headless Horseman...”  
  
The look Tony shoots him is unimpressed. “Those are all fiction. Fiction.”  
  
“The Exorcist was based on a true story.”  
  
“True.” Tony mocks, framing the word with air quotes. It makes Peter grin.  
  
Pepper takes charge. “All right, everybody out. And take something in with you.” 

\--------------------------------------  
  
Let’s pick bedrooms!” Morgan squeals. “This one’s mine!” She takes a running leap into the Queen sized bed. Peter huffs out a laugh and left her to it. The next room had a set of twin beds and he tossed his duffle bag on the one nearest the door. He didn’t really care where he slept.  
  
There was an ancient looking chest of drawers on the far wall and he started unpacking his clothes. He was turning to grab his socks when a glimmer from the window caught his eye.  
  
Curious, he walks over to the window. The room looked out over the woods to the west of the house. He stood admiring the view, when there was another flash. It sparked from the tree tops and he still couldn’t tell where it was coming from.  
  
The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He leaned forward, straining his eyes to try and catch a glimpse of a figure concealed in the trees. There it was again, the disconcerting flash. He reached out to touch the window pane and brace himself against it. Just as his fingers make contact with the glass it breaks under his hand with a sharp crack. He jerked his palm back to find it bleeding.   
  
“Peter!” Morgan screamed. “Mommy! Daddy! Peter’s hurt!”  
  
Tony and Pepper appeared in the doorway.  
  
“It’s fine! I’m fine!” Peter is aware his babbling a bit, but he doesn't want them to worry.  
  
“Let me see.” Pepper takes his hand and Tony moves to the window.  
  
“Did you stick to it?” he wonders, pushing lightly at the break.  
  
“No, I just touched it. I thought I saw a light, but it...” He breaks off that thought. “M’sorry.”  
  
“Don’t worry,” Pepper reassures him when she returns with a wash cloth for his hand. “It’s an easy fix.”


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

  
Dinner was a quiet affair. Pepper made pasta with sauce from a jar that they’d picked up on the way in. Peter ate his fill and tossed his paper plate.  
  
After dinner he went exploring. The house was updated from the Colonial era but seemed to have frozen again sometime in the 90s. He was making his way through the front living room when something caught his eye. He steps over Morgan, who is on the floor sorting the toys she’d packed.  
  
"It’s a rotary phone!” Peter exclaimed. He picked up the heavy receiver and listened to the dial tone. “I haven’t seen one of these, like ever.”  
  
He slowly dialed out each number, trying to be careful not to damage the phone itself. When he’d dialed the final number, he was rewarded with his cell phone lighting up.  
  
Morgan peers into his hand. “That’s so cool. I want to do it!”  
  
“Hold on,” he places the receiver back in the cradle. The call ends.  
  
“Ok, let’s call Mommy.” She declares sticking out her index finger.  
  
They’d called everyone in the house at least three times before Morgan was satisfied. She tossed the receiver back on the hook. The movement unbalanced the pedestal table it was resting on just enough to send the whole thing tumbling to the floor.  
  
“Careful, Mo.” He admonishes gently as she jumps on the edge of a settee before racing toward the kitchen.  
  
Peter reaches over and picks it up, settling everything back the way they’d found it A swirl of white out of the corner of his eye. He turns toward a large gold mirror settled over the waist height mantle. There’s nothing reflected in the mirror. Or rather, the room is reflected but not Peter. He tries a tentative wave.  
  
“So weird,” he whispers to himself. Thinking maybe it was the angle of the mirror, he touches the frame. There’s a flash of blue light and the mirror cracks. Two overlapping circles appear in the glass but inside one is the image of a girl. She’s wearing all white, but he can’t see her eyes because they’re covered with a thick, white blindfold.  
  
Fear steals the breath from his lungs as the apparition moves, reaching out. Peter takes a step back, his brain short circuiting. Just as he does the whole mirror shatters into pieces and the ensemble pitches forward off the mantel  
  
“Oh my god.” He yelps, catching the heavy frame before it hits the ground.  
  
“What happened?” Pepper comes rushing around the corner, Tony close at her heels.”Are you ok??”  
  
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He lowered the heavy golden mirror frame to the ground.  
  
Tony steps in, setting his hands on his wife’s shoulders, “Don’t worry, honey. We got this.”  
  
He watches as Pepper disappears upstairs then turns back to Peter. “That's twice today, Kiddo. I thought we were through the clumsy phase.”  
  
Peter shoots him an unimpressed look.  
  
“I thought I saw something, okay.” He fires, back. “In the mirror.”  
  
Tony stands, arms folded, admiring the mess before his gaze flicked to Peter. “Was it-was it you?”  
  
It takes a moment for him to register what Tony had said. Peter chokes on a laugh, spluttering. “No! No, it was not me, Mr Stark. It was something else. And then it broke and the whole thing just.” He gestures helplessly.   
  
“Well, what did you see?” Tony’s tone is more neutral now and less teasing. He kneels, starting to pick up pieces of glass.  
  
“I don’t know.” The edges of it seem pretty fuzzy now that the shock had worn off. “It kind of looked like a girl and she was, uh, wearing a blindfold. You know what, never mind. I'm not...”  
  
Morgan chooses that moment to race back into the room and it takes Tony and Peter’s powers combined to shoo her away from the glass.  
  
Once the mess was cleaned up, Peter suddenly feels exhausted. He goes upstairs to brush his teeth. Morgan was in the master bedroom with Tony and Pepper. She’d already been bathed and her mother was working the tangles from her hair.  
  
Peter showers and changes. While he brushes his teeth, he checks his hand. His palm had already healed, he flexed it for good measure. It was fine. He’s still not sure how he feels about what he saw in the mirror. Maybe he shouldn’t have teased Tony about all of those horror movies. So far today though: Glass 2, Parker 0. He sighed, definitely Parker luck, now with an added broken mirror penalty. This was going to be a fun trip.  
  
Morgan was already in her room by the time he makes it to bed. Tony tucks her in and wanders down the hallway, stopping to lean against Peter's door frame.   
  
"Night, kiddo." He says smiling softy.  
  
Pepper leans around him "Goodnight, Peter."  
  
"Goodnight." He watches as they leave and he hears their door shut down the hall.  
  
Peter could see the soft glow of Morgan's nightlight. He plays on his phone for a bit, shooting a goodnight text to MJ and checking in with Ned and May, neither of whom respond. He yawns. He heard a sudden squeaking followed by pounding footsteps from the room next door. Morgan runs into his room full tilt and jumps straight into the other twin bed.  
  
“Hey, I thought that was your room?” He teases, pointing to the adjacent bedroom.  
  
She ignores him and pulls the covers up over head. “I’m scared.” her voice trembles a bit.  
  
“That’s ok, you can stay.” Peter says reassuringly and sets his phone on the nightstand to charge.  
  
He can hear the soft strains of Pepper and Tony talking and it lulls him straight to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first fanfic in a very very long time. It's also my very first for the Iron Dad fandom. It's an homage to an old Disney movie called, "The Watcher in the Woods." I loved this movie when I was a kid. Unfortunately, upon re-watching, it is NOT as good as I remembered. I have extensively adapted it and it bears only passing resemblance to the film. The bones of the plot are there, but not a whole lot else.  
I am pretty rusty and had no beta so forgive any mistakes.  
A special thank you to Grace_d for all of the encouragement and advice!  
I also rushed this a bit because I wanted to get it out before Halloween. Multi-chapter and already 90% complete so it should go up pretty quickly. Thanks for reading!


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